People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 April 1896 — KILLED HIS FAMILY. [ARTICLE]

KILLED HIS FAMILY.

OHICAOO MAN FOLLOWS MIN•H ALL'S iXAMFLt Mb Übui bi • nt «f !■— tty, D» •tnyi Hb Thr.. UttU Child*** **4 CoiimiU Htletd* —o»foMd«d Ttmr *f Forarty tappw*d *• u * C**** Chicago, April 15. —John Lehman killed his three children and took his own life yesterday at his home, No. 223 West Twenty-Third Street The dead are: JOHN LEHMAN, aged 38 years. CLARA LEHMAN, aged 5 years. BERTHA LEHMAN, aged 3 years. AN INFANT, aged 4 months. Like the man Minshall, of Penwater, Mich., who a few days ago murdered his family, Lehman brooded over financial troubles. At irregular intervals during the past two years the public has been shocked by a number of tragedies of this character. In many respects the story of one is the story of all. In each case it was the head of the house who did the bloody work, and his motive was always to remove his family and himself without the pale of possible want and suffering. Whether the awful deed of Leman was suggested to his disordered mind by the Minshall murders in Penwater may never be known. There is a possibility that it was. For eight years Lehman had been in the employ of the West Chicago Street Railway Company, and during the greater part of that time had been a driver on the Center Avenue line. Through economy on the part of Lehman and his wife, they saved $1,500. Notwithstanding that fact, however, Lehman worried a great deal. He had a horror that some day his savings would in some manner be swept away and his family would become dependent on charity. Last week Lehman grew worse in his strange fancy, and worried so much that he became ill. Sunday he resolved to move his family to a different location, and decided upon a house a* No. 31 Kroll Place. Monday Mrs. Lehman worked around the prospective new home, and as it grew dark before she completed her labors she decided to finish the work yesterday. Lehman remained at the old home with the three children, and Henry, a stepson, accompanied Mrs. Lehman to assist her.

Minnie, aged 11 years, was at school,! and as Lehman’s time for going to work ! was 5 o’clock, Mrs. Lehman had requested Emma Wende, 15 years old, the child of a neighbor, to go to the house at that hour and take care of the children until her return. When Emma Wende arrived at .the house the children were playing in the yard. Lehman was watching them, but upon the girl’s arrival sent her over to the house where Mrs. Lehman was at work and gave her to ask for hie wife if she needed his assistance in laying the carpets. He told the girl to hasten back and let him knowTT'his wife needed him. At 5 o’clock Henry was sent hom£ by his mother to see if the children were all right and take care of them in their father’s absense. When Henry arrived at the house he found all the doors locked, and he thought his father had gone to work and left the children in the house. He entered through a basement window. In the house a horrible sight revealed itself. Lying upon the floor, side by side, were the dead bodies of Bertha and Clara. Their limbs were stretched out straight, and the clothing was smooth, as though it had been carefully arranged. The faces of the two children were smeared with blood, and blood had soaked through their clothing from bullet wounds in their breasts, and formed* pool on the carpet. The 4-month-ola infant girl’s body lay on a couch. The child had also been shot through the heart.

Henry kept his nerve when he beheld the awful sight, and ran next door and notified Mrs. Annie Ninz of what he had seen. Without going in to view the bodies Mrs. Ninz hurried to the Hinman avenue police station, and notified Lieutenant Stewart of the tragedy. He, in company with several officers, went to the Lehman residence. A search by the police revealed Lehman’s dead body lying in the bathroom directly off from the bedroom, where his victims lay. Blood was flowing from a bullet wound in the left breast, and around Lehman’s neck was a piece of a clothesline. The body lay with the head toward the door, and from the condition of things in the room Lehman had evidently tried twice to hang himself before he ended his life with his revolver. The revolver with which Lehman cpmmitted the murders was found ly}n'g'on the floor near his dead body. a 32-caliber, and four of the chambers were empty. Lehman was 38 years old. and came to this country jjiiany years ago from Bremen, Gennady, He first met Mrs. Lehman at Minooka, 111., her former home, and they were married there.